This guidebook presents a variety of dropout prevention strategies and is intended to help readers determine which strategies are best suited for a particular classroom, school, or district. The primary audience is school personnel who work with young adolescents. It begins by addressing major dropout issues, primary research findings, and possible solutions. Three additional concepts are then presented: bonding, basic skills, and youth advocacy. These topics relative to bonding are explored: classroom and school climate, various school policies (attendance and truancy, suspension, nonpromotion and retention, discipline, tracking and testing), and the roles of parents, families, and the community. These basic skills topics are then discussed: curriculum concerns, instructional issues, teaching/learning styles, career awareness and educational planning, cooperative learning, peer tutoring, and the role of vocational education. Specific issues featured in the discussion of youth advocacy are adolescent behavior, expectations of youth, early identification of potential dropouts, building self-esteem, guidance and counseling, and accommodation. The monograph concludes with a discussion of planning and evaluation techniques, staffing patterns and staff development, the role of administrators, and overview of choices that teachers, counselors, and principals should consider in developing dropout prevention strategies. A list of 145 references concludes the guide. (YLB)